Back in his room I took a bath. Even though it would look suspicious, I figured it would be even more quizzical if I smelled like the reek of death from running in the dungeons. I sat in the bubbles with my head in my knees, barely above the liquid. I had only roughly ten minutes in the room before he was back.

I heard the door open quietly and then a long pause. He opened the door to the bathroom with an insanely mistrustful glare on his hardened features. He was gone again, replaced only by the boy who knew how to be a soldier.

He leaned in the doorway and crossed his arms as I lifted my head. I had a strange realization that we were both living in each other's alternate realities; I had memories of his that he no longer carried in his mind, and he memories of me that I no longer carried in my mind. We both had bits and pieces of our timeline together. I stared at him, knowing he'd just emptied the hours earlier away into a glass vial. Maybe someday he would revisit holding me that night.

"What the fuck are you doing in the bathtub at four in the morning?" He narrowed his eyes at me, "When I left you were sleeping."

I looked down at the bubbles popping against my knees with shock. He hadn't removed everything; he'd somehow mastered only removing the part of the memory associated with his feelings. It was incredibly difficult magic to learn; I'd heard vaguely that obliviation masters only ever emerged through genetic predisposition. It must have been a unique genetic ability harbored by the Malfoy's which would explain the ancient looking bowl in the basement above the timeworn tomb.

"Well?" He asked, looking exhausted. I could smell the assaulting fumes of decomposition coming off of his clothing as he rotated in the doorway so that his spine was on the hinge. He let his head hit the wood behind him and stared at the ceiling.

I countered him, curious to understand how much he'd obliviated, "What es de problem? Do you want to keep cuddling?" I ran my hands through my soaked hair, knowing full well he could see my entire naked, glistening chest. I didn't care anymore; I'd become normalized to his presence and our sexual relationship.

His eyes slid over my body as I leaned back, both arms on either side of the black tiles of the tub. I myself had progressed since having the pregnancy charm removed; I was becoming more aggressive and bold again, and I sat there with power. I had answers he didn't know I had, and this had changed everything. I knew who he really was whether he wanted me to or not.

His blue eyes met mine still looking cynical, "Did I say that I wanted that? I'm asking why you're awake at this hour all of a sudden, acting like some...siren in the fucking bathtub."

I tilted my head and let my golden gaze burn into him, "Funny, Draco. You also seem to 'ave changed since you left the room. Anything I should know?"

He stiffened and his body was off of the doorframe rapidly. His eyes searched my face, I saw his lips part and his eyes widen, "What are you playing at?"

"What are you playing at? You smell like my dead grandmother," I said, shuffling bubbles together in front of myself nonchalantly. My lip curled up and I smiled devilishly down into the bathwater at how hilarious the entire conversation was. It was becoming increasingly hard not to laugh in his face.

So this was how it felt to be all-knowing in the presence of the obliviated. Even if he could remember the actual night, he had no idea how he'd felt earlier, and that I now knew his secrets about just how vulnerable he really was deep down. I had given it a lot of thought on my way back up the stairs.

He obviously had to continue obliviating himself regularly because his vulnerability would constantly seep back out and he would end up creating emotional memories like tonight over and over. It didn't matter that he kept obliviating the memories of feeling love, because it was simply his nature. It would always be there, deep down.

He barked a short laugh and ran a hand through his hair, pacing around the vast lavatory, "Who the fuck do you think you are? Have you become drunk again in the hour that I left?"

I shrugged and stretched my arms out above my head to really accentuate the perkiness of my breasts and smiled at him, "No. But I would love to be. Oh but right, my loving husband 'as banned et." I crossed my legs in the bathtub and my toes extended beyond the edge, dripping shiny bubbles onto the tiles below.

His eyes flared at me, amused and dubious all at once. His fingers were over his mouth as he started laughing at me, "That's good, that's pretty good. Great presentation, Madeleine. However you got your hands on alcohol I will find out, and I will ensure whoever gave it to you loses a body part."

"I'm not drunk, just because I'm not spineless, Draco," I cooed as I played with the bubbles, "Now, if you wouldn't mind leaving. You reek." I raised my eyebrows at him as if to inquire once again if he planned on admitting why he stank like the dungeons.

He smirked wickedly but his eyes were bright and engaged. He ripped his silver sweater off in one fluid movement and my eyes were instantly magnetized to his abs, "Riddle me this; why should I leave my own bathroom?" He walked towards the tub smoothly and bent down next to me on his heels, crossing his arms on the rim of the tub. He rested his chin in his arms next to my face and smiled at me cruelly, then faked a mocked pout, "You think you're so tough? Or have you realized this is all just a show you're putting on?"

I flicked water in his face, "Oh Draco, we both know dat dis is a show you are putting on too." Without wanting to bicker more I shoved my head underneath the hot water. I let myself drift to the bottom of the tub and held my breath with my eyes shut. My long hair floated around me in the water.

It was a minute or so before I felt his hands on my hips and my spine, arching me forwards. He dragged me up out of the water and into his embrace. He'd gotten into the huge tub with me and now I was in his lap, legs over either side of him. I reached my hands up to brush my soaked hair back from my face and he kissed at my breasts. I let my hands drop onto his shoulders as he tugged me down onto his hardness and began penetrating me, rocking my hips above him. I gasped loudly with the sudden intrusion but met his rhythm almost instantly. He was biting his lip and making tantric eye contact with me. He looked up at me with the bluest eyes I'd ever seen, and I truly felt like his Queen in that moment.

I reached up a soaked hand behind his back commanding his still dry hair back with blunt force and bent down to kiss him with my wet lips, shoving our tongues together. I continued pulling at his hair sharply as his fingers dug into my butt cheeks, ripping me over his hips.

The electricity between us was more intense than ever, and it felt like if we weren't in the water we'd burn the building down to the ground. It was rough; we were finally matching each other in power and desire. I knew then that even when he erased how it felt to feel love, he still wasn't as vile as he wanted me to believe he was. He'd always be soft at his core, he'd always remember that he did love me even if the memory of the feeling was removed. And many of the expensive, villainous words he used to threaten me were completely empty, just a front to scare and control me.

"Fuck, you're so hot when you're a bitch," he moaned against my lips, and started kissing down my chest. I watched as his now messy hair moved down by body, his pointy nose, his long eyelashes.

I hung my head back and moaned. He sucked at my soapy breasts and I began to cum as he played with my nipples in his teeth. When my loud moaning reached it's peak and transitioned to screaming he came with me, kissing my neck and biting my shoulder.

I didn't waste any time. I stood and wrung my hair to the side while he stayed there, leaning back and panting. His eyes were everywhere on my body with a shocked expression on his face. I winked at him and stepped out, "Hmm, and you're so hot when you're not talking." Then I spun my hair into a towel, wrapped another around my waist and left him in the bubbles. He was smirking at me as I walked out.

When I woke up the next morning I felt soreness between my legs from the rough sex we'd had in the tub. I had absolutely no regrets though, suddenly feeling incredibly even with Draco for the bold attitude I'd had. My scheming was beginning to give me my power back and it showed.

Draco had told me the night before that he was going to London in the morning and might not be home the next night, so I had plenty of time to laze around or do some research. I dressed into a short slate gray dress with long sleeves and an umbrella waist. It was still wet and grungy outside and I had no desire to tend to my garden in such conditions. I knew that the Fanged Geraniums would be filled with sass the next time I went out, after being completely ignored for nearly a week, but so be it.

I went to the library for several hours and found an interesting article on The Deathly Hallows, nearly choking on my coffee when I saw the Cloak of Invisibility listed there. How had Draco come across such a valuable item? Unless he'd taken it from one of his victims. And now, it was stashed underneath our bathroom sink, where he didn't know it had gone to.

It occurred to me in that moment that I had absolutely no way of returning it to the locked drawer where I'd removed it from and I instantly frowned at my mug, watching the contents swirling slowly. This was not well planned.

I eventually decided to go back to the room and nap, considering I had lost so much sleep in the middle of the night chasing Draco through the dungeons and then later hooking up in the bathtub. When I pushed open the door my books literally fell out of my arms and scattered at flip-flopped angles around my slippers.

He was standing there staring out the window in peculiar robes, even for him. It was barely past noon and I had never seen him home at that hour, much less on a day when he'd specifically told me he wasn't going to be home, possibly at all. He turned to look at me with a very strict and odd expression and my heart fluttered with instant and unexplained panic. Had he found the missing cloak? The Wide-eyed potions? Was I in trouble again for not being pregnant?

His eyes drifted to the pile of books at my feet and he hissed in disapproval, "Now, now Madeleine, we are better than such disarray. You will clean that up and come over here at once." He flashed me an unbelievably stringent look and shivers went down my spine. I raised an eyebrow at him while collecting the books, trying not to let my newfound confidence falter so soon.

"Why are you 'ome so early?" I asked as I moved the books to the table by the door and closed it, folding my arms. Something about his entire presence was wildly unnerving but I couldn't place it. Perhaps I'd just met the evil twin, I mused in a silly thought.

He stiffened and his head turned to the side in a sharp, exacting motion that looked robotic. His bright blue eyes bit into my skin, "How dare you question whether or not I should choose to be in my own home."

I blanked at why he was suddenly so angry over trivial conversation. Draco was known to be short tempered over obvious nonsense like crying or arguing, but not really basic questions - as long as I didn't ask too many in a row, naturally. My heart sunk violently as I considered the idea that he'd been completely and totally obliviated.

I breathed hard and painfully, knowing my growing fear was obvious on my face, "What 'appened? Are you okay, Draco?" I took a step forward, now afraid that I'd lost him forever.

He gave me a murderous look and snapped his finger, "I've already told you to come over here, girl. If I must repeat myself than there will be severe consequences. You have duties to uphold."

My mouth dropped open at the outdated verbiage and I laughed in disbelief, "What the fuck, Draco?" I stood where I was, refusing to move with unimpressed, wide eyes.

He gave me a short, thin smirk and then his voice was light and milky, "Very well. You will learn the hard way what your place is in this relationship." He took two massive strides then and his strong hand clamped down on my upper arm. He threw me into the desk and I yelped as my hips collided with the wood, sending shooting pain through my bones. My hands reached up to push up off of the desk but he ripped them both behind me and magically bound them together, then he was pinning my head down sideways against the wood with so much pressure that a headache blossomed in my temple.

It was then that I realized he was going to rape me for the first time. I started crying and kicking but his hand held my head down hard. Then nothing happened briefly as I wailed and gasped. His foot pushed against mine and my legs widened suggestively. My screaming reached a new height, the shrill piercing of it hurt even my own ears. I had never been raped before and the open sense of complete and pathetic vulnerability was like knives into my mind every single second.

I felt him leaning over me but my underwear and dress were still on, and so was his clothing. I didn't feel anything hard against me either. He brushed my hair aside and whispered in my ear roughly, "You had better look just like this every time I ask you to perform your duties, girl, or I will leave you to rot in the dungeons with the rest of your kind." Finally my screaming had reached a pitch even I thought was impossible, and suddenly my hands were hot. I felt him step back rapidly and I spun to face him in hatred and confusion, assuming he'd poured something scalding or acidic into my hands. The heat followed behind me, though and he slowly backed out of the room looking perplexed. I could hear the lapping of flames as I continued to scream, hoping he would never return, my hair floated off of my shoulders in an unnatural way.

Then I realized the entire desk was on fire behind me. I stepped away almost tripping and took deep, controlled breaths, feeling the flames in my hands simmer away. The fires that had now spread to the desk however were not dying down. The curtains caught with the igniting blue element and soon the entire desk, my Lionspurt, many of the plants and the entire glass wall were being consumed by bright neon flames.

I backed up and then turned to run at full-force out of the room yelling "Fire! Fire!" I passed Narcissa and several of the elves in the hallway as they made their way to Draco's bedroom to extinguish the disaster. Narcissa grabbed the sleeve of my dress as I passed her but I ripped away, still completely magically bound by my wrists and headed for the stairwell.

She looked extremely concerned, and picked up her dress to follow me, "No! Madeleine wait, it's okay."

I ignored her and jogged down the huge stone stairs, tears streaming in my eyes from the assault. I slipped and fell painfully onto my backside, and choked through the sudden breathlessness it left in me. Then I pushed back up just as Narcissa had almost caught me again, "Please, Madeleine wait!" she called frantically, but I gave her a mistrustful look and bounded away again taking three steps at a time recklessly, able to only beat her due to my athleticism and her dress being so long and in the way of her steps.

On the first floor I could think of nowhere to go at first, before I took off towards the abandoned wing. Thankfully, Draco had accidentally left the doors open and I pushed through one and shut it behind it me to cover my tracks. I sprinted to the potions room, shut that door too, and then pushed myself deep into the extremely filthy fire place with his named carved into and shut my eyes, shaking beyond description. The faint sound of Narcissa calling my name around the Manor continued for at least an hour before finally fading away.